I don't think that's the whole story. Chrome was more user friendly from the beginning. It took FF years to drop the rigid, Windows XP style UI and become more user friendly. At the same time, FF doesn't offer the same level of syncing your data across all your devices like Chrome does. And when it comes to system resources, say what you want about Chrome's tab memory management, but FF on macOS is not a pleasant experience either (extensive CPU usage and heating problems).

I have tried to switch back to FF (and even to Edge), but every time I realize Chrome - despite all its problems - is a much smoother experience. YMMV.

Chrome also used A LOT to shady patters to get installed as a default browser on windows, mostly using third-party installers of unrelated software.

it's a shame, really.

In the early day every driver CD and a large portion of online installers had chrome bundled and pushed. Pretty sure almost every preinstalled system also had chrome. If I don't miss remember, even game installers occasionally pushed chrome. It was very noticeable and I remember quite well the annoyance of having to go to advanced setting and unselect chrome several times during reinstalls of windows 7.

They did have a different memory profile (might still have one in macos, I wouldn't know since I don't use mac), and the UI is each to ones own, but I few programs outside of AOL installers has been as pushy as chrome during the beginning.

User friendliness was not the problem. Neither was the XP style.